It is so good to see all of you here, though I hate the reason for it.

It's been bumpy yesterday and today since I've had advising sessions with students at UCLA, as well as meetings with new clients for the business and I've had to work to put all of this aside while dealing with those, and then come back to it.

I wish that I could just take some time to process, but alas, that isn't going to be the case. It is one of the downsides to running a small business.

All of that being said, I am fucking TERRIFIED of this surgery. It's probably a little ridiculous, as it's minimal, but I'm highly surgery-phobic.

While chances are everything will go just fine, there is nothing wrong with having fear of surgery. I learned that first hand. I never had a big surgery fear, and then I had what was a very routine procedure and I'm sure folks remember how that ended.

This sounds like I'm trying to scare you, and I'm not. What I'm saying is that the fear is okay and that you have support here. Recovery from any surgery is a drag, but you'll have family around, and you'll have us around to help you through it.

On a personal level, let me know what I can do to help.

My husband's bonus mom (his brother's mother, his father's wife, too close to be called stepmom) is going in for a partial glossectomy tomorrow along with having some lymph nodes removed, due to cancer on her tongue/in her throat from a decaying dental filling. She gets there at 6 am and is set for surgery to start at 7:30. She'll have 8-12 hours of surgery, 24-48 hours in the ICU, and 10-14 days in the hospital, before the long road of recovery at home begins.

If you find yourself awake between 6 and 7:30 am Eastern tomorrow, please imagine her covered by a quilt with a twilight blue blending into a deep violet covered with the moon, stars, the sun and dragonflies.

On a personal level, let me know what I can do to help.

Will do, Drew.

I will sign the hell out of an ita's law proposal.

I actually have two pieces of awesome migraine news. My husband discovered that alcohol was his major migraine trigger, and that if he cut out alcohol entirely, he stopped having migraines. And my son, as we all hoped beyond hoping for, did what some male adolescents do and mostly outgrew his migraines. He's just turned 21, and got an A in his first community college class after missing all of high school.

This is great! I'm so glad to hear things are going better for both.

Surgery~ma, Sean. I hope everything goes as well as possible and that your post-op pain can be kept to a minimum.

Its been so nice to see everyone coming by the board. I realized yesterday that at least half the friends I've made since 2002 have been because of the board or, indirectly, through others that I met here. My life is so much richer because of y'all.

Betsy - wonderful news about your husband and son. Just magnificent.

I only wish the same for you.

Betsy - that is so wonderful! I am so happy to hear it.

I'm skimming a bit. ~ma and love to all (though I did get to see Betsy's news - dear, I am so happy to read that).

I'm now officially exhausted. And I really still can't believe that ita's gone. I fucking hate the thought that she's not in the world anymore. This is so wrong.

I am reading Allyson's book when I can't handle with all that's online, and it's so wonderful. I brought it to work with me, to explain people what this community is. What it means. Thank you for the book, Allyson.

And I love you all, and I'll finish my cup of tea and go to bed soonish (10:35 PM here).

Don't you ever go away.

I'm still working to catch up in ita's thread, but has anyone contacted katefate? I saw that she checked in the delurking thread in 2013 and has a profile addy. I'm just clueless what to say and wanted to defer to others who have been contacting (reaching out to) past buffistas.

Work today sucks beyond the telling of it. No concentration whatsoever.

Betsy, that is wonderful news! I'm glad they were able to get relief.

Sean, much ~ma for you as you go through the process. I'm just happy it's going to mean an improved quality of life for you.

It is nice to see so many of us back together on the board. And like everyone else has said, the reason for it sucks mightily.